Some churches reduce safety to what is minimal for many reasons. Sometimes church members are so overworked they refuse to take on any more responsibilities. In other cases, members have the mistaken belief that calling 911 will solve their needs–or that serious safety incidents “will not happen here”. Few understand that a 911 response is at best 10 minutes to hours away. If a serious incident occurs, the gaps in rapid response are obvious after the fact.
This is the typical “train wreck” scenario where safety was misunderstood until harm occurred.
In a true safety incident, second may matter. Most violence is over in under 2-5 minutes. Most heart attacks need attention within two minutes. Most choking needs attention in under 15 seconds. Without immediate attention, many people may die who could live if only an adequate response happened in the first minutes. What an opportunity to show Christ’s love! What a tragedy if 911 is called, and the waiting time prevents the saving of lives.